Brand loyalty

The collapse of the Icelandic banking industry is going to have huge repercussion on the outcome of the election coming up April 25th, obviously. I do not think Americans, or any country with a deep tradition of capitalism, can really appreciate the potential for radical change latent within Icelandic culture. I certainly have been more apt to make light of it, thinking that the sort of change might be akin to Obama's presidency, that a new leader with new ideas might be found, who could work within the system to make changes here or there that overtime would be transformative. But I was thinking this morning about the lack of a genuine capitalistic ethic here, 18 years of the Sjalfstæði flokk does not compare to the 120 year tradition of this in the U.S. And I got to thinking about brand loyalty, about how little brand loyalty Americans are expected to have. Advertising agencies do their best to instill a sense of familiarity that makes people unconsciously purchase their products, but in fact the capitalist consumer always holds out the threat that if the product is not good, (a realization that can happen slowly over time), there is always, always another company making a similar product. Customer loyalty absolutely has its limits. It is a one sided threat, the cold war after the collapse of the Soviet Union, if you will, because the company is dependent on the consumers, not the other way around (a few rare exceptions, like electric companies, but even that has been subject to competition). Customer loyalty in the U.S. is therefore a choice.  

Icelanders have much more brand loyalty than Americans have. I am sure there are historic and economic reasons for that, not all of it rosy, but my point is, it also has political repercussions, will have political repercussions in the election. Icelanders can easily imagine having only one company sell a certain product, having no choice in fact but to buy that product from that company, seem to really prefer it that way. That could happen tomorrow and no one would think twice about it. A new leader with new ideas to slowly make changes from the top down is not what Icelanders are looking for; they are looking to replace the whole system all at once. A complete nuclear free zone, if you will.